Monday, March 9, 2009

Ok, so I'm still trying to do a sketch a day but it took me a week to actually post them all. While I know daily updates are preferable, it can be a pain to warm up the scanner and get the little sketch in and adjusted, which doesn't feel worth it sometimes.

So like I said, I'll try to update more frequently than I just did but it may not literally be "daily".

Ok, here goes:

Something from Art Explorer Post-- did this awhile ago, but tweaked it.

On Saturady: New costume-- Roman! We had really limited time for each pose. I'd estimate no more than 5 minutes, maybe less. Felt like that anyway.

Another one-- trying to get faster at rendering with pen.

Trying to practice anatomy. I love the "industrial design" approach, i. e. breaking it down into geometrical shapes. How much I remember from doing these studies is questionable though. I try drawing these things by memory after I've copied a diagram, but I feel like I've already forgotten most of what I "learned". So frustrating!

This is one of the variations of an idea I had awhile back for a kind of device worn as a "boot" that is a kind of active "smart stilt" resembling an insect that allows a user to navigate very difficult terrains such as piles of small boulders, building rubble, or even dense forests. I resurrected the idea when working on the cave exploration thing, because these types of boots could also be great for wading through water. The basic idea is that the individual "feet" on the 6 legs per boot latch onto a surface within a 280 degree angle-ish cone. If the surface is several feet below (like a crevice) or above (like a peak) the legs bend in two different ways (active at joint, passive at lower ligament) to compensate for the height difference, allowing the user to "walk" more quickly and easily instead of climbing. It, of course, would still be impractical, so it would probably be considered an outdoor sport in the sphere of mountain biking and skiing.

(No, those are not her real eyes/mouth! They are projections. I'm not that bad at anatomy!) Anyways, this probably violates a bunch of fashion design rules, but I wanted to go for something really out there. It's an outfit, presumably for nobility, in a culture that values complete and utter expression of everyone's absolutely true and unconcealed emotions. The whole outfit can be likened to a mood ring on steroids. The "eyes" are a projection within the visor (think CRT monitor) that reflect what the wearer's emotions *should* be in real time, based on sensors in the brain. The shoulders are made of a fabric intwined with little lights, making it sort of a flexible screen that shows various colored waves that people in this culture are trained to be able to read, to tell if the wearer is agitated, calm, anxious, happy, etc... The individual enclosed leg dresses (a split dress or double-legged pants?) interpret the data displayed in waves in the shoulders, and turn it into a fashionable display similar to music visualization softoware in iTunes and Windows Media Player, etc... Only it's brain waves instead of sound ones.

So conversing with this person would mean seeing everything she's thinking, her awakeness level, her emotion, perhaps even whether she's lying. Large, simplified, projected eyes, eyebrows, and mouth tell you what her expression would be in an exaggerated way (I think of those Japanese robots with "personality". But before you think you have the upper hand in this conversation, imagine if you were rigged up like this as well! How would conversing be different?

How does the angle look? I was trying to do a "top and looking down" type of view, which is why the legs look a little short, but something still looks wonky to me...

I've decided to try to improve my digital painting skills, specifically the speed aspect. Of course, I forgot to record how long this took... -_- But it's pretty low res, wasn't too long. I used a reference photo of a cave (lit for tourists, I presume) somewhere in the Netherlands. I also tried mimicking the color closely. Yeah, I know, they really were that bright!

Monday, March 2, 2009

This is "steampunk" pen design for a stationary type set we're designing for my illustration methods class. The little gear in the clear part sticks out of half the pen shaft slightly, allowing the writer to retract the ball-point pen nib into the pen. The ball-point part hides underneath the pseudo-ink dip tip, which is actually made out of a dulled rubbery plastic to keep it from poking holes in backpacks (or people!). The end part is actually an electric vibrating eraser that's designed to erase pen (I've heard of these-- supposedly they're pretty nifty!).

I also have some sketches for a steampunk backpack, binder, notebook, planner, and other stuff but I did them traditionally and don't feel like scanning 'em in.

Anyway... probably should wean myself away from posting school assignment sketches and WIPs, as the point of creating this blog was to encourage myself to grow with personal stuff... :-\

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Here's a WIP of an illustration I did (am doing?) for my illustration methods class. It was way too choppy when I brought it in last week, so I'm trying to deepen the colors and unify the different objects so that it doesn't look like teeny chopped-up separated little shapes.

It features researchers exploring a cave with geothermal springs and strange plant life that undergoes chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis. I'll probably explain more about what's going on in it when I'm done.

Bad quality pic by the way-- my scanner's not working so I had to take a digital photo.